A Colder Day Today......

When I let the dogs out this morning, one lone junco sat out on one of the patio chairs and just watched me.  I went and got a few cups of seed to put out and now you see this junco is happy.  I also had on cardinal show up.  The sun is shinning this morning with temps starting out a -11 degrees F.  I am glad that it is perfectly still with no wind or we would be more frozen inside and outside.  My flock of birds must have found other feeders that they like when I am bad about getting the feeders filled.  The do come back but it takes of day for them to include my feeder in their rounds.   I saw a photo on the internet yesterday that was taken in Iowa and there were 5 robins (thrushes) in a tree.

You can see the male cardinal is feeding his face with a sunflower seed.  You can see how the sun is coming up and it it is bright this morning.

I have a snow stick out this year like our friends in Minnesota.  It helps to keep track of what is out there with the piling up of the white stuff.  It says it is at 4 inches but the past bad storm has settled down some. The new snow we had was very fluffy to bring it up to 4.  I do have higher drift locations but I am not going to put out a dozen measuring sticks.  Snow it on its way the next two days so we will see this number increasing.  I am always amazed and amuzed how the national weather people barely recognize our state. Today we couldn't be seen on the map because we were so covered with weather clouds.  We didn't get a mention because we don't have KC in our state nor Chicago.  We should plan on moving Iowa over to the east coast where the real weather is happening.

Grandson AJ turned two on Monday and our package finally arrived on Wednesday.  AJ loved opening his package and liked his present, but the hit of the day was the Elmo card.  He could push a button and Elmo sang a different version of Happy Birthday to him.  He loves seeing Elmo so it was a perfect card for him. The photo is a little blurry but his expression is very much the real one of joy. 

I wonder what goes through their brains when they get things that are new to them and beyond their understanding.  He really likes that Elmo came to his house to sing to him and the card belongs to him.  His dad said that AJ didn't want to go to bed after a birthday party out there on Saturday as he just didn't want the day to quit.

We survived the process of doing our taxes yesterday.  I was for the first time in years really happy with the results.  Don't despair, I did pay my fair share of taxes this year for the president's programs but we did get money back. 

I am home today as there is no school today.  I won't be doing any outside work today and probably not tomorrow either.  My wife is fighting off a cough and a cold so I will try to do things that will help here out.

Thanks.................for stopping in today.